Colleagues are knowledgeable and good at what they do since the bar is quite high to get in. People are friendly and helpful. Also, workload is adequate so there is always something to do but not ridiculously much.

Cons

Pay is ok but not too good.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Managers could give more attention to the developers in terms of having discussions about personal growth, career options etc.

The benefits are okay (if you are a permanent worker). Amazon is going anywhere soon so there is some job security ( There are chances to progress and learn new skills, however most of them don't offer any extra pay. The amount of holiday hours i get per year is very good.

Cons

It seems managment is valued highly and the lower-level workers are just numbers and are unimportant as they can be easily replaced.

They don't believe you when you are off sick. I had a fever and left early (the first time i have ever gone home early due to sickness in 3 years) on a Friday, which angered my manager. He said he would look back and see if there was a pattern of my going home on fridays so i could have a long weekend.

around Christmas they make you do compulsory overtime (up to 50-60 hours per week) and you have no say which days you do. I'm due to work 108 hours in the next 12 days.

- Fantastic brand to have on CV- Opportunity to develop products/services that will be used by tens of millions of customers- Working with bright and capable colleages

Cons

- Salary below market average and total reward highly dependent on Amazon stock price.- Portfolio of diverse businesses - ranging from Retail to Cloud Computing to Movie Studio - with the culture highly dependent on the VP's personality. You might get a VP who is a good leader but a bad VP impacts the whole of the business.- Promotion difficult and relies heavily on self-promotion - can encourage unhealthy competition rather than collaboration amongst colleagues.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

What made Amazon successful in the past isn't necessarily what is going to make it successful in the future. Be prepared to adapt existing management practices/rituals to avoid becoming overly bureaucratic. In particular, the high volume of management reporting (weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual business reviews) and associated meetings is time-consuming and can be demoralising. These meetings are a means to an end rather than the end itself.

Work life balanceSystems that would frequently failNo communication between teamsUnsupportive management, I had a line manager who would openly berate and insult me on an open floor officeMinimal training, thrown in at the deep end with little to no assistanceUnderstaffed, workload distributed unevenly between staff

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Train line managers in how to treat employees with respectHire more staff for big projects

Current Employee - Product Manager III in Slough, Berkshire, South East England, England

Current Employee - Product Manager III in Slough, Berkshire, South East England, England

I have been working at Amazon.com full-time (more than 3 years)

Pros

Very strong brand name, Amazon continues to innovate and its exciting to be part of a business that continues to grow quickly, and to be reinvesting in the business and releasing new products. I can honestly say that I have worked with the smartest people in my career at Amazon, which encourages me to raise my game. Strong leadership principles that provide clarity on how to get things done in the business.

Cons

A word of warning if you are a parent or have obligations away from the work place that you need/would like to also find time for. Amazon expects your full commitment- there are many reviews on here of people calling out appalling work/life balance- so pay heed to these. There have been so many instances I have seen of employees on sick leave through stress and anxiety, with little attention paid to why and to integrate these back into the business or provide the appropriate support. Amazon is a burn out mill that requires your full focus, so perfect for those who need validation in their lives from a work perspective, but awful for those who don't. Very frugal environment with extremely lean teams- pretty typical for most individuals to be doing 2 roles at once. Business continues to grow but is an increasing concern that any revenues achieved through growth don't seem to feed back to the employee.

Senior management attitude is to focus on things that go wrong- never any call outs for what has gone well. Depressing attitude to take in a business that demands so much from employees. Amazon gets data, doesn't get people or how to encourage a positive collegiate culture. Lots of new naive MBA's that the business can suck dry. Very high turnover of staff- people leave/disappear and are never heard of again.

The only people I would recommend Amazon to are those who are willing to completely throw themselves 100% into their career for a few years to get experience and the name on their CV- even then you need to be very careful about what you take on board- the business will suck the life out of you if you let it.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Recognize that all employees are also customers. If the business is customer obsessed- it should also be employee obsessed. Think about what you are building from an employment perspective- what responsibility you have to the 1000's of staff who are working themselves to the bone to make you a success.

Pay is good if you're in the right roles - Higher technical and management roles at least, some opportunity for travel in key roles. Share options aren't too bad.

Cons

If you are good at what you do and can follow the company line then you will do well, unfortunately in terms of IT in the warehouse part of the company don't expect to get a lot of technical work or opportunities for growth - far too many operational meetings that will destroy your soul. The Operations team is GOD which is understandable but other departments always come second even if their work actually supports the day to day operations. Expect lots of last minute projects that have to be delivered yesterday only to find most aren't used by Operations for months - begging the question of why the rush.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Give support departments more respect for the work and advice that they give, Customers are what is important but the staff are the ones that make your company work, they need love too.